Call us now: 0845 057 1819

Mandy Nickerson (nee Bales)
Managing Director

An interesting start to the week as we have a film crew going off to Egypt on Wednesday to film for the BBC’s Holiday programme and we still have not received all the filming permissions. This is critical as there is a lot of red tape and if anyone is caught filming without permission, at certain sites, the film can be confiscated.   That would not be good news – and would also be crazy as we are working hard to promote tourism to Egypt - the country will actually get as much if not more out of the programme as Bales will!

This is when the saying ‘it is who you know’ rings true. Ironically we had an Egyptian colleague in for a meeting with us today and requested his opinion. He immediately got on the phone to a few contacts in high places and by the next morning we had all of the permissions for the sites confirmed.

Later that day we had a meeting with a new overseas ground handler. These are companies that represent us overseas and look after all the coaches, hotels, guides etc.     I think relationships are so important – it is not just about price - it can’t be when wanting to deliver high quality, they have to share the same ethos about the services we want to deliver to our customers.   This gentleman certainly does and I look forward to working with him in the future.

Web Log - May Number 2

Numerous calls today from our PR Company about last minute arrangements for The BBC Holiday programme. The programme will focus on our new Nile ‘dahabiyya’ called The Zahra. Sailing on the luxurious, six-cabin boat is a unique way to explore the ancient wonders of Egypt. It’s very Agatha Christie with fantastic on-board comforts and service. The Bales full itinerary includes 3 nights in Cairo and 7 nights sailing between Luxor and Aswan. We will be operating an additional dahabiyya (The Nesma) in 2007. The BBC crew are virtually taking over the whole boat and the very dishy Jeremy Sheffield will be the presenter – can’t wait to find out the screening date, hopefully October.

Web Log - May Number 3

I had training on outlook for emails this morning as we are migrating to a new back office system. I am one of the last to migrate - is it because I would not be as adept to learn it as fast as my esteemed colleagues? – Or they save the best till last? – No-one will tell me so I rather like thinking it is the latter!?

I was really excited later in the day as I was updating myself on the recent welcome home call feedback and it is such a joy to see that we are meeting and sometimes exceeding expectations. 

Let me explain…We pride ourselves on our personal approach and therefore did not think that asking our clients to complete written questionnaires was the best way of receiving feedback. We introduced a scheme where we call every client within three weeks of their return to ask how their holiday with us went.   The batch I have been reading state things like – ‘this was my first tour with Bales, but certainly will not be my last’, ‘impressed by Bales superior service and from now on we will look at Bales first’, ‘could not fault Bales from start to finish’.

I would be misrepresenting us if I wasn’t honest with you – yes sometimes we do get criticism – a journey being too long, not happy with a particular hotel room or the like– but this is always followed up after hearing such feedback and their comments are taken fully on-board. Constructive feedback is very helpful in keeping us on our metal and works towards the service levels we aim to deliver.

In the past couple of months because of foreign office advice we have had to reschedule our Tibet tour that was going through Nepal to go through China instead. Clients’ welfare and safety is paramount to us and there are many measures we put into place to keep our promise on this. One such measure is taking the foreign office advice and cancelling departures if necessary.

 I was walking past our flat screen television in the office – we keep it permanently on a news station so we are immediately aware of news breaking - and something caught my eye. It was a news item covering a demonstration going on in one of the countries in which we operate. In the event it was a peaceful demonstration and was not going to affect any clients – phewww!  

Examples where our passengers may have been affected were the recent bombs in Egypt- though we were fairly confident we did not have anyone in the affected area of Dahab. We heard the news about 8p.m. We immediately identified our clients in Egypt and checked that all were fine within 2 hours.We then got in touch with our clients emergency contacts to ensure that they had peace of mind.

We have a 24 hour emergency number that clients can call and in the event of a crisis we have a team and plans in place so we are well prepared.